The Cherry Princess and The Criminal
by Kail Kaiser
Summary: Claire Standish found something that Saturday in detention. Now she wants more but, will he? Claire/John fic.


Brief authors note : I own nothing and I am not making any profit from this story. I'm merely taking the characters out for a little spin. This is my second attempt at this story.

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It was exactly two days ago that Claire Standish found herself in dentition. It had been nothing like she had expected. She made a few unexpected friends and one very special friend. John Bender. Just his name put a smile on her face. When she got home from dentition she ran upstairs and locked herself in her room and thought about him for the rest of the day. She thought about his smile, his awful attitude, and even the way he kissed her before she got in her father's car. She touched her left ear and let her fingers linger over where her diamond earring should be but wasn't. She had given it to John. She had given him a small piece of herself to take with him in hopes he would think about her. Whatever small chance that might be. She knew his reputation with the ladies wasn't exactly clean but, maybe just maybe he had felt that little spark she felt when he kissed her.

Claire sighed that was two days ago and today was Monday and she hadn't seen John or anyone else for that matter. She was disappointed to say the least. It was turning out just as she told Brian they would never see each other in school. They were all from different social structures. It just wasn't possible. That didn't mean she couldn't try.

She had thought she had seen Brian in the hallway heading toward geometry but, as she went to go call out his name one of her friends grabbed her attention by elbowing her and asking why she was so spacey today and when she turned around he was gone. She tried looking for John Bender next since she at least knew one of his classes. Shop class. She told her friends she forgot something in her locker and went to it in between class periods looking for him but only saw other students milling around trying to get to their next class. She wasn't really surprised. If she could skip school whenever she wanted she sure as hell wouldn't come to school on a Monday. She looked around for Allison next but, she had no idea what classes she had. She hadn't even known the girl had existed until they had detention together. Altogether her search for Allison had been a big bust. Last but not least was Andrew. She was positive this morning she could at least find him. They had gym class together during seventh period and after that he would head straight towards the coach's office and they would talk about wrestling tactics. Claire waited all day for seventh hour to come. She was just itching to talk to anyone from detention to reassure herself that last Saturday had actually happened. Andrew wasn't there when she went in to gym.

Claire slammed her locker shut at the end of the day frustrated. She could understand one maybe two people from the group not coming to school today…. but all of them! That was ridiculous! Was there some unwritten code she didn't get? She stomped outside the building slightly pissed. She walked across the school to the parking lot to wait for her father to pick her up when a familiar voice called out. "Hey cherry."

Claire whirled around and spotted none other than John Bender leaning against a lamp post.

"What are you doing here?" her tone came out a tad bit harsher than she meant it.

"Last time I checked princess it was still a free country." John answered with a frown glaring at her.

This was not how Claire pictured meeting John again. She didn't expect flowers or chocolates but, she at least thought last Saturday changed something. Maybe she was wrong. Perhaps last Saturdays detention really meant nothing to all of them it was just a once in a lifetime experience. They would never be able to go back to the Saturday. Claire let out a sigh and looked at the ground.

"What's wrong with you?" John moved closer to her and shoved his hands into jacket.

"Nothing is wrong with me." Claire said looking up at john.

John gave her his your shitting me right face. Claire looked around and fidgeted avoiding John's eyes.

"What are you doing here after school anyway? You skipped school today." Claire asked.

John grinned and taunted "Oh cherry's checking up on me today. Why Claire I never thought you were the stalker type."

Claire blushed bright red. "I was not stalking you." She managed to stutter while looking everywhere else except Johns prying eyes.

"Oh you weren't? Than what were you doing?" He asked accusingly.

"For your information I was looking for everyone at school today not just you!" she growled embarrassed.

"Oh everyone that's a lot of people cherry. There are bound to be some people missing. What made you pay special attention to me?"

"I didn't mean it like that."Claire said glaring at him. "I was looking for everyone we had detention with."

"Ohh… so that's what you were doing." He smiled and seemed highly amused by her statement.

"I thought you didn't want to see any of us every again after detention was over. It would ruin your perfect little princess image." He retorted looking slightly angry.

Claire bit out "Well maybe I changed my mind!"

Silence seemed to stretch out in the parking lot after her outburst. John was currently very interested in searching Claire's face for something and Claire was content at glaring at the concrete and trying to become invisible. The silence stretched on with John fidgeting until he couldn't take it anymore.

"So cherry what are you waiting for lets go."

"What?" Claire finally looked up to find john suddenly standing way to close to her personal space. She took a couple steps back.

"Hey you're the one who said you were looking for me all day. Now that you found me I'm sure as hell not going to stay here at school." He smirked as he started walking across the parking lot.

Claire ran after him calling "Where are we going?"

John turned backwards and continued walking smiling at Claire "What's wrong don't trust me?"

Claire look at him and tried to repress a grin but failed. "Of course not."

John gave an irritated sigh "Well its' about time you start."

They ended up at an old park she used to go to as a kid when it was new. It now had graffiti everywhere and broken beer bottles littered on the ground. John made his way over to one of out of the two available swings kicking a beer bottle out of his way in the process.

John called back to her "Come on cherry swing with me."

Claire walked over and gingerly sat down on the other swing. John began swaying back and forth on the swing. Claire couldn't help but laugh a little he was such a kid sometimes.

"What?" John asked looking at her.

"Nothing."

John frowned at her response. John bender did not like nothing answers when it was clearly something. So he did the only thing he could think of. He retaliated. He stopped swinging back and forth and gave a little push side to side effectively bumping Claire's swing startling her.

"What the hell do you think your doing?" she asked glaring at him.

"Nothing." he replied cheekily and swung back hitting her swing again.

"Hey stop that!" she shouted at him.

"Make me." He said smiling.

Claire glared and swung her swing so it would crash into his. She missed by an inch.

"Oh so cherry's feeling a little feisty is she?" he asked as he adjusted his swing so he had a better angle at Claire.

"You bet." she said smiling as they both pushed themselves forward and collided.


End file.
